Acts of meaning do not accidently or haphazardly reveal the “unconscious” God to the person who is the author of the acts, such that the person automatically knows God better. Briefly, for Frankl the unconscious God is the intentional orientation of existence to discern God as a person. Frankl’s phenomenology reveals the relationship of the unconscious God and the will to meaning as the necessary condition for all these acts of meaning, ordering them to their overall goal: knowledge of, and union with, God. This method identifies the structure of the individual intentional acts of choosing values the good choices which existence makes, that is, the meanings which existence pursues. Existence does not in any manner construct this orientation, this intending which Frankl calls “the unconscious God.” In his thinking, the unconscious God is the pre-given goal of the will to meaning which thus orients and directs existence in its choices and rejections of actions on the basis of whether they have value, and thus are possible meanings.įrankl’s phenomenological method reveals how the unconscious God comes to be known. “God” is called “unconscious” because existence has no ability to Invent, control or eliminate this innate, built-in, a priori orientation to God. To put it roughly, the unconscious God is “inside” the person and part of the person’s structure as a human being. When Frankl speaks of the “unconscious God,” then, he means that God is the prior, built-in goal of existence, or-in the language of Husserl and Scheler-the intentional horizon of existence, the goal that existence intends, or aims at. However, he is speaking of neither the Freudian conception of the unconscious nor obviously of the common-sense notion according to which someone is knocked unconscious or is rendered unconscious for surgery. For Frankl, however, the term indicates a built-in, prior orientation which is not something acquired through the actions or choices of existence. Frankl goes beyond the deterministic Freudian doctrine of the equilibrium (the homeostasis) of these conflicting elements-at best a fractious psychological armistice-to assert the existence of the unique antecedent which he calls the “unconscious God.”įrankl borrows the term “unconscious” from the Freudian vocabulary. Frankl’s conception of existence drops out the deterministic Freudian triad of ego, id, and super ego with their attendant conflicts. Man’s Search for Ultimate Meaning as well as other writings examine the notions of God and existence in relation to each other. Frankl explicitly relates ultimate meaning to God and religion.
However, thought is likely to suggest the result of reflecting, reasoning, or meditating rather than of imagining.The notion of God, of “supra-meaning” as Frankl sometimes refers to God, is one of the major thematic concepts underpinning his logotherapy. In some situations, the words thought and notion are roughly equivalent. The first impression is of soaring height When can thought be used instead of notion? Specifically, impression applies to an idea or notion resulting immediately from some stimulation of the senses. The words impression and notion are synonyms, but do differ in nuance. My idea of paradise Where would impression be a reasonable alternative to notion? While in some cases nearly identical to notion, idea may apply to a mental image or formulation of something seen or known or imagined, to a pure abstraction, or to something assumed or vaguely sensed. Our changing conception of what constitutes art When might idea be a better fit than notion? The words concept and notion can be used in similar contexts, but concept may apply to the idea formed by consideration of instances of a species or genus or, more broadly, to any idea of what a thing ought to be.Ī society with no concept of private property How do conception and concept relate to one another, in the sense of notion?Ĭonception is often interchangeable with concept it may stress the process of imagining or formulating rather than the result. You have the oddest notions When is concept a more appropriate choice than notion? While all these words mean "what exists in the mind as a representation (as of something comprehended) or as a formulation (as of a plan)," notion suggests an idea not much resolved by analysis or reflection and may suggest the capricious or accidental. Some common synonyms of notion are conception, concept, idea, impression, and thought. Frequently Asked Questions About notion How does the noun notion contrast with its synonyms?